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It's all political and to make the 'leaders' feel powerful as they manipulate these people who genuinely need help.
I'm wondering if there is a good way to mitigate this situation.
OTR - that isn't what it is all about. Political yes (the definition of political is "Of or relating to the ideas or strategies of a particular party or group in politics." after all),…but it is NOT intended to make the organizers feel powerful, it is NOT indented to manipulate people who genuinely need help. Rather, the People's Platform is meant to organize and empower under the premise of working with. Here is a link to the People's Platform for Equality & Justice in OTR, written in 2010: http://arts.muohio.edu/cce/papers/peoples_platform_for_equality_and_justice.pdf

I have some photos taken from the 3rd floor of buddy's place (1300 Vine, southeast corner of Vine & 13th), as well as tons of photos of 1314 Vine before demo taken from the street, photos of 1314 Vine being demo'd from buddy's place & the street. My office also has photos of Vine at Mercer from the 80s/90s that interns will be scanning in this summer. One day I'll make a photo blog or a better flickr and post a gallery for anyone interested in viewing.

Huh, the Choices website says they're working with 3CDC on 1421 Elm: http://www.choicescafe.org/pages/programs/ . It's the second one on the page.
Choices Cafe rents space in 1500-06 Elm Street. I think (but am not 100% certain) that 3CDC and Choices will be working on renovating 1421 Elm Street. 3CDC isn't involved with renovation of 1500-06 Elm.

Oh crap, really? This seems like it could be pretty bad for the neighborhood then. These are the same people who were complaining loudly about any general improvement of OTR including public amenities. In their minds projects like parks improve the neighborhood, increases property values, and pushes out the poor and elderly. Apparently, the fact that there are so many empty buildings in OTR has nothing to do with their efforts. :roll: Luckily, groups like 3CDC have thwarted their efforts to make OTR the Crack Alley of the Midwest.
Bfwissel, today is June 29th 2012 and your comment is wildly inaccurate and does not reflect reality today. Full disclosure: I work for Over-the-Rhine Community Housing.
"This seems like it could be pretty bad for the neighborhood" - do you know anything about this project at all? The Elm Street project will provide 15 units of supportive housing for senior citizens. The development will allow seniors in our community to "age in place".
"These are the same people who were complaining loudly about any general improvement of OTR including public amenities. In their minds projects like parks improve the neighborhood, increases property values, and pushes out the poor and elderly." - First, these are not the "same people" - only a few staff people at OTRCH today were around when ReSTOC was lead by buddy and ReSTOC and OTRHN were separate organizations. Second, it was decades ago that buddy rallied residents, advocates, friends and supporters to stand up and have their voices heard at City Hall, in the media, etc. Today there is less "complaining loudly" from OTRCH than there is working day in and day out toward the organization's mission statement, which is: "[working] to build and sustain a diverse neighborhood that values and benefits low-income residents" and "[focusing] on developing and managing resident-centered, affordable housing in an effort to promote inclusive community." Key words and phrases being build, sustain, diverse neighborhood, inclusive community, value and benefit low income residents.
Third, it is absolutely true that "revitalization", "redevelopment", "urban renewal", and "renaissance" often result in the displacement of the poor and elderly - read any academic literature, book, or peer reviewed study on gentrification. Furthermore, there have already been low income individuals and families who resided on Race Street in OTR who have been displaced as a result of 3CDC's actions.
"Luckily, groups like 3CDC have thwarted their efforts to make OTR the Crack Alley of the Midwest" - OTRCH has not attempted to make OTR the "Crack Alley of the Midwest" in any way, shape or form. You are welcome to refer to OTRCH's actual, physical, tangible building developments - our new construction of market rate and affordable units on Pleasant Street, our Housing First project on Odeon Street the Jimmy Heath House, a recently rehabbed single family home on Republic Street are recent examples. They are safe, clean, dignified, decent places to call home.
You can also refer to all of the work OTRCH does day in and day out in providing resident services, whether it is hosting NA and AA meetings in our Recovery Hotel building on Vine Street (aiming to help people achieve sobriety, the opposite of fostering a "Crack Alley"), or holding meetings with residents to empower residents to be eyes on the street on their blocks, or our collaboration and partnership with the Cincinnati Police Department to deter crime. (Did you know that OTRCH gave CPD permission to mount two of their new high resolution cameras on top of two of our Vine Street buildings for the purpose of prosecuting criminals and deterring further criminal activity?)
I can say with 100% confidence that there is not a single person who works for OTRCH who wishes to see OTR as a "Crack Alley of the Midwest." In fact, just today I was at a meeting where our directors, social workers, and residents of a building we recently bought and assumed management of were all present. The building is on Findlay Street directly across the street from Findlay Market, is a building with a HUD subsidy attached, and was not previously managed by OTRCH. Over and over again, the theme out of OTRCH as well as residents' mouths was concern and care about ensuring the building was as safe of a place and as welcoming of place as possible to live.
If these words mean nothing to you, you are more than welcome to volunteer at OTRCH and see and experience for yourself what the organization is all about. If you do not want to see OTR as a "Crack Alley of the Midwest" you could take an active role and contribute something positive to OTR rather than just complaining loudly about what you do not like.
OTRCH has a Saturday morning volunteer program - every Saturday morning year round from 9 am to noon, rain or shine - volunteers gather at our office on Washington Park, form teams, walk to our warehouse and gear up with supplies and then disperse though the neighborhood to work on anything from beautification projects (like picking up litter, maintaining vacant lots) to assisting residents with projects in their homes, to preparing vacated units for turnovers. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening year round from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm we also host a free youth arts program called Children's Creative Corner. CCC is always looking for volunteers to get involved and make art with the children of OTR!

ReSTOC stood for "Race Street Tenants Organization Cooperative", it was a grassroots, volunteer driven housing developer started by buddy gray (he did not capitalize his name) in 1978.
In 2006 ReSTOC merged with Over-the-Rhine Housing Network (founded in 1988) to form Over-the-Rhine Community Housing. Today OTRCH owns and manages 93 fully renovated buildings with approximately 380 apartments, all of which are in OTR. Many of OTRCH's buildings are still listed on the auditor's website as being owned by ReSTOC.

The apartments on Elm Street will be affordable housing for senior citizens with onsite services - enabling seniors to "age in place."
There will be an elevator installed in the building and a common gathering area on the first floor.
It is a partnership with OTRCH and Model Management.
OTRCH was awarded a $1.75 million dollar HUD 202 grant last fall and this tax credit award is an additional portion of the financing for the project.

Check out www.otrch.org + the response I just wrote to mcadrenaline. I am the Volunteer Coordinator at Over-the-Rhine Community Housing and I am always happy to work with new volunteers, especially people who live in the neighborhood!

You can get involved by volunteering with Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, a long standing non-profit that has been actively developing and managing affordable housing in the neighborhood since 1978. I am their Volunteer Coordinator; every Saturday morning year round from 9 am until noon volunteers from around the city and region come to OTR to pitch it with whatever is needed that week - landscaping, picking up litter, assisting with maintaining common areas of some of our properties, etc. We are the 4th largest property holder in OTR with 93 buildings and approximately 380 apartments - about 550 people call our apartments "home" and all of apartments are rented out below market rate prices so that individuals and families with modest budgets can have safe, decent places to live. www.otrch.org is our website, my contact information is there.
-Brittany

This July W. 14th Street between Elm and Vine will become two-way, per notes one of my co-workers wrote down at a meeting he attended with 3CDC and the City on April 17th. Maybe the on-street parking on the south side of 14th east of Race will be removed and converted to a travel lane? W. 14th from Race to Republic and then Republic to Vine are very short blocks lengths, removing that parking lane would get rid of less than two dozen on street spots total.

The worst thing about that Kroger is the fact that they close at 6 pm on Sunday evening - completely different schedule than any Kroger I have ever visited. I moved to the intersection Main & Liberty in 2007 and a handful of times during the summer months when daylight seemed to go on for forever, I would walk over to Kroger for a last minute ingredient, not really aware of the time, only to find the lights off and the doors locked. Always a bummer. Without fail I would then always get in my car and drive up the hill to Corryville, which at the time was a 24/7 hour store. Back in 07' I found a contact e-mail and wrote a message to Kroger about this, but 5 years later no change in the hours.
As for hummus - I consistently found the Athenos brand of hummus there all throughout last summer, usually in the cooler thing near the area where they sell hot mac and cheese, meat etc (I guess that would be the deli counter?) It's been a few months since I've sought it out though, it's possible it is no longer carried.

Sorry to hijack - but the Drop Inn Center is definitely moving? I have yet to hear confirmation/exact plans from anyone affiliated with the shelter but everything I'm reading in the news is pointing to that.

The old firehouse?
A goth/alternate music place, Rakes End, is in that area now - next to Hartke.
Alternative music has such a hard time in this "city that sings".
Oooh, my mistake on the street names. So CityLink is bounded (roughly) by Linn Street, Bank Street to the south, Baymiller to the West, and Central Ave to the north. What I have heard is that CityLink is looking to acquire everything on Central Ave up to the intersection of Central & Baymiller, which includes the old Brush Manufactuary building on the southside of Central Ave at the corner of Central Ave & Baymiller. Freeman is the next cross street on Central, and that firehouse at the corner of Freeman & Central Ave is not being looked at by CityLink, and neither is anything else in the block of Central Ave that spans from Central & Baymiller to Central Ave and Freeman.
Off topic but The Rake is great by the way! 2141 Central Ave - my landlord owns the building and spent the past 6-8 months renovating the space where The Rake is now. It was amazing to watch the transformation of the space — formerly the location was home to the Detroiot Highwaymens Motorcycle club, the interior of the bar was completed coated floor to ceiling in black paint, there was an 8' acoustic tile drop ceiling, etc. My landlord gutted the interior, removed the drop ceiling, exposed the original soaring ceiling with original tin, repainted everything, etc. It looks great. The brick facade has also been removed and replaced with glass — during the day the glass is covered/protected with plywood, but the plywood is taken down each night the bar opens.
The first night The Rake was open was Dec 31st 2011 and it has been open every Saturday night since then, and has opened up for planned events (a poetry reading, a DIY goth/industrial night, the Brewery District's monthly meeting last week, etc) on several other occasions as well. I work there quite frequently tending bar and am so glad that Brighton now has this public gathering space, especially since the public venue space at the Mockbee building across the way on Central Parkway (2260 Central Parkway) was shut down by the City due to building code issues.

Your observations are accurate. Police department mounted the cameras. These cameras transmit real time and are capable of zooming in/out the distance of a few blocks. Camera at 13th & Vine is mounted on the buddy's place building, 1300 Vine, owned by Over-the-Rhine Community Housing. They allowed the Police Dept to do so. The camera near 15th & Vine is also mounted on a building owned by OTRCH - 1511 Vine Street. These cameras are $25,000 a pop and although I don't have the specific details in front of me (I learned all of this at one of the public Washington Park Safety Sector meetings + took notes) I do know there are several other new cameras up in OTR as well, North of Liberty.